OUR TRIP TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN WEST STARTS IN COLORADO, MOVES THROUGH WYOMING, AND ENDS UP IN IDAHO. ALONG THE WAY, THERE'S A RODEO, A FEW MOUNTAINS, AND SOME WARY SUBJECTS. THIS IS A STORY ABOUT RUGGED COUNTRY--AND THE CLOTHES AND MEN THAT CAN STAND UP TO IT. LET'S HEAD OUT.

GREG RUSLER, WRANGLER AND TRAILGUIDE,

LEADVILLE, COLORADO

ELEVATION: 9,513 FEET

"I grew up in Los Angeles and started working with horses in Tahoe. I talked someone into training me when I was in my early thirties. Maybe I watched too many westerns, but I just wanted to ride and be around horses. Leadville's a quiet little town: We have a couple of saloons, an old theater with folding chairs, and a brew house. We travel, but I haven't been to the city for a bunch of years. It kinda scares me."

LEIGHTON WHITE, BOBBY DAVIS, AND CHUCK CERASOLI, FIREFIGHTERS

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO

ELEVATION: 7,316 FEET

CERASOLI: "We work all over the city and all the way up the mountain, wherever we can get our rigs to. A buddy and I were looking around for a place to be ski bums for a season; I ended up staying in Colorado. Steamboat's a good mix: it's big enough to offer me a career in firefighting, and I'm addicted to skiing."

JUSTIN IACOVETTO, RANCHER

"My great-grandparents on my mom's side were homesteaders out of Ohio in about 1891. My dad's family came from Italy about the same time. The ranch just grew from the original 160 acres to now about 8,000 acres. This area is historically cattle country. It's a good area for grazing. The slower your grass grows, the better it is for weight gain."

DUSTY TUCKNESS, RODEO BULLFIGHTER

CODY STAMPEDE RODEO GROUND, CODY, WYOMING

ELEVATION: 5,078 FEET

"I do cowboy protection for the fallen bull riders. I go in and distract the bull from the cowboy. We entertain the crowds, although the job can be deadly. I've broken several ribs, my fingers, my ankle, and had my chin broke open. Worst mistake you can make is running away from a bull in a straight line. You can outmaneuver him, but you ain't gonna outrun him. I tried it. It don't work."

SCOTT HARTMAN, PALEONTOLOGIST, DIRECTOR OF SCIENCE

WYOMING DINOSAUR CENTER, THERMOPOLIS, WYOMING

ELEVATION: 5,080 FEET

"I got into fossils as a kid, and then I guess I never grew up. In the field I get to dig on some interesting finds. I worked on the second-ever apatosaurus find a couple of years back. My specialty is anatomical reconstruction; I've done a lot of work on the mechanics of dinosaur knees. The sedimentarygeology around Thermopolis makes it ideal dinosaur country."

DAVID BROOKOVER, PHOTOGRAPHER AND GALLERY OWNER

SNAKE RIVER OVERLOOK, GRAND TETONS, NORTH OF JACKSON, WYOMING

ELEVATION: 6,869 FEET

"There's a wildness here. I shoot the Tetons a lot. I guess they have power because there's nothing else around them. The elevation goes abruptly from seven thousand feet to nearly fourteen thousand. With the summer storms, you get great light. I don't think you could ever become immune to it."

TROY, ALAN, AND JIM WILLMORE,

WILLMORE LUMBER COMPANY INC. ST. ANTHONY, IDAHO

ELEVATION: 5,003 FEET

Jim Willmore: "I've worked for the Stoddard Lumber Company, which was founded in 1879, since 1960. Now that we own the company outright, we're in the process of changing the name to the Willmore Lumber Company. I have three sons in the business, from logging up in the hills to here at the timber yards, where we cut planks and logs for all sorts of construction."

ADAM ALLEN, FOREMAN, AND CHRIS FLETCHER, SUPERVISOR

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD, 8514 CURVE GANG, NEAR DINGLE, IDAHO

ELEVATION: 5,968 FEET

Allen: "At the end of the day, all the trains that are carrying all the stuff to all the stores are back on the move again. Your 'Attaboy!'s are basically in the silence. If you don't hear anything, no news is good news. If you're doing it wrong, you're definitely, by God, going to hear about it. But when you're doing it right, the only thing you hear is the sound of the trains moving."